…has an aide who was running a rogue police force.
The state is in the very best of hands.
An ISIS Camp
I don’t know whether it’s true or not but I wouldn’t be shocked and, like Professor Price Foley, I wouldn’t trust the word of either our or Mexico’s government on the matter.
I would note that “regional universities” includes both UTEP and New Mexico State in Las Cruces.
3-D Printing In Space Using ISRU
That’s the topic of the talk coming up from Dennis Wingo at the Improving Space Operations Workshop. I follow him.
The IRS “Phony” Scandal
“I was targeted by the IRS, and I have proof“:
The IRS is supposed to be totally nonpolitical, as it must be in a free and fair democratic society. Do you know what my IRS tax file says?
“SENSITIVE CASE.”
Do you know the date “SENSITIVE CASE” was written on my tax file? The week Lois Lerner testified in Congress.
The only thing “SENSITIVE” about my case is that I’m a conservative political columnist and commentator often critical of the president. The only context where “sensitive” applies to me is “POLITICALLY SENSITIVE.”
Why would a citizen’s tax file be tied to his politics? Why would the IRS know my politics? Why would a normal random audit be classified as “SENSITIVE?’
But we’re only getting started with the criminal implications of this case. My IRS auditor wrote into the margin of my file that he spent hours researching my political views. How chilling is that revelation? It sounds like the KGB, Stasi or even the Gestapo.
This administration has weaponized government agencies against its political enemies. As he notes, Nixon had to resign for simply wanting to do so.
[Update a while later]
Pad Abort Test
Congratulations to SpaceX. From what I’m seeing on my Twitter feed, it went off without a hitch.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s the video.
[Update a while later]
Here‘s Michael Belfiore’s report.
Political Correctness
The FBI and DHS thought that an attack in Garland was unlikely.
Because, you know, Religion of Peace™
Actually, I think that we should do a lot more events like that. It seems to be useful honeypot to draw them out.
[Update a while later]
ISIS has declared war on Pam Geller.
I pity the fools.
[Late-morning update]
Kansas City mosque that wanted to ban free speech will give Muslim funeral to one of the perps.
But remember, it has nothing to do with Islam.
[Late-afternoon update]
Judith Miller: The Jihad at home.
Improving Space Operations
It’s Day 2 of the workshop. I’m giving a talk this morning on the need for resilient LEO infrastructure. I may post the briefing later. It’s substantially the same one I gave to NASA at HQ in December.
Lunar Operations
Interesting session at the Improving Space Ops Workshop in Pasadena. Heard a talk on long-lived stable lunar orbits with max eclipse time of four hours. Now listening to a proposed cubesat mission to map hydrogen at the lunar poles.
Judith Curry’s Testimony
Congress had some follow-up questions:
1. President Obama has warned that, “for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.” He said we must “choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it is too late.”
A. Is there an overwhelming judgment of science or any science, showing that the President’s regulatory actions will prevent the threat that he is so concerned about?
If you believe the climate models, then President Obama’s INDC commitment (total of 80% emissions reduction by 2015), then warming would be reduced by 0.011 degrees Centigrade, a number that was provided to me by Chip Knappenberger of CATO using the MAGICC model with an equilibrium climate sensitivity of 3.0oC http://www.cato.org/blog/002degc-temperature-rise-averted-vital-number-missing-epas-numbers-fact-sheet. If the climate models are indeed running too hot, then the warming would be reduced by an even smaller number.
2. We have heard a lot of doomsday scenarios about what will happen if we do nothing on climate change. However, there has been less attention to what the results of any actions we take to combat climate might be.
A. Suppose we cut all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Would this avert the supposed catastrophic impacts?
Eliminating all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 would reduce the warming by 0.014oC (as per the EPA MAGICC model). This is an amount of warming that is much smaller than the uncertainty in even measuring the global average temperature.
3. Dr. Curry, what happens to academics who step out of line on climate change?
A. Why would experts be afraid to question climate change orthodoxy?
The censure of scientists disagreeing with the IPCC consensus was particularly acute during the period 2005-2010. As revealed by the Climategate emails, there was a cadre of leading climate scientists that were working to sabotage the reviews of skeptical research papers (and presumably proposals for research funding). Further, scientists challenging climate change orthodoxy are subjected to vitriolic treatment in news articles, op-eds and blogs, damaging the public reputation of these scientists. I have heard from numerous scientists who are sympathetic to my efforts in challenging climate change orthodoxy, but are afraid to speak out or even publish skeptical research since they are fearful of losing their job.
Since 2010, things have improved somewhat especially in Europe; I think this has largely been due to reflections following Climategate and the fact that disagreement about climate change is not as starkly divided along the lines of political parties (i.e. the issue is somewhat less politicized). In the U.S., with President Obama’s recent pronouncements about climate denial and climate deniers (as anyone who does not agree with the consensus) has increased the toxicity of the environment (both academic and public) for scientists that question the IPCC consensus on climate change.
There’s a lot more.
Improving Space Operations
There’s a workshop at JPL today and tomorrow (I’m doing a presentation there tomorrow morning), so blogging will probably be light or non-existent.
[Update a few minutes before I leave]
The Humans2Mars conference starts today in DC. There is so much stuff going on in space that it’s hard to cover it all in person, even if I had the travel resources. Follow @jeff_foust and Pat Host (@Pat_DefDaily). It’s also live streaming.
[Update before I’m out the door to Pasadena]
Humans2Mars has issued its first annual report. That’s the first I’d heard that Mike Raftery had left Boeing.